Trail Life USA offers an alternative to Boy Scouts

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Local impact

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) national organization's decision in May 2013 to admit openly gay scouts hasn't changed much in the local Anthony Wayne Area Council, which serves Allen and 10 surrounding counties in northeast Indiana.

“It hasn't had any impact at all,” said John Gliot, council executive director. “Our kids still are going to meetings, they still are going camping.”

As of Dec. 31, the local council served about 5,800 youth in 250 scout groups, Gliot said. The groups include Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Venturing crews, Varsity teams and Explorer posts.

Individual scout groups are in the process of renewing their annual charter for this year, Gliot said. He has heard a few scout troops may not renew, but he won't know for sure until late March.

Anthony Wayne Council also has had about three charter partners — typically a church or school that sponsors a scout troop — decide not to participate this year, Gliot said. The council has worked to find new organizations to host the affected troops.

At least two local Boy Scout troops won't be renewing.

Heartland Church, 1025 Vance Ave., decided to drop its Boy Scout Troop 442 after the national BSA decision last May. The congregation still is looking into alternatives, a church staff member said.

Ascension Lutheran Church and School, 8811 St. Joe Road, opted to join the Trail Life USA program and currently appears to be the only Trail Life troop in Fort Wayne, said Scott Daily, the troop master.

Ascension had sponsored a Boy Scout troop since 2001, Daily said. But members of its voters board decided in March 2013 not to renew that charter if the BSA approved accepting openly gay scouts.

Church members believe homosexual activity is a violation of their religious doctrine, he said.

Daily, 61, who has been involved in Boy Scouts for more than 20 years, tried to find a replacement program and discovered Trail Life USA. The group was founded by longtime Boy Scout leaders who opposed the national Boy Scout organization's decision to admit openly gay youth.

Daily's troop has been meeting as a Trail Life troop since mid-January, he said. They currently have 10 to 12 boys involved who range in age from kindergarten to 17.

“So far, it is working out pretty well,” Daily said.

While Trail Life uses different names for troop members' ranks and merit badges, the program provides most of the same programming as Boy Scouts, he said.

As with Boy Scouts, Trail Life offers a lot of benefits for boys, Daily said. Those include learning outdoors skills, getting out in nature, developing leadership abilities and building self-confidence.

Daily said Ascension Lutheran is exploring the idea of offering an American Heritage Girls troop, which is a comparable program for girls. Currently, a Girl Scouts group meets there, but it isn't sponsored by the congregation.

By Kevin Kilbane of The News-Sentinel

The new group was founded after Boy Scouts of America voted to accept openly gay boys

By Nomaan Merchant
of The Associated Press

Sunday, March 2, 2014 - 12:01 am

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — Chatting in the living room one night, Ron Orr gave his 15-year-old son Andrew a choice: He could stick with the Boy Scouts of America and his mission to become an Eagle Scout, or he could join Trail Life USA — the new Christian-based alternative that excludes openly gay boys.

This was no small decision. Four generations of Orr men had been Eagles, including Ron and Andrew's older brother. Andrew had spent years working toward Scouting's highest rank, and was just months from reaching it.

But the Boy Scouts had decided to admit gays, and Ron Orr, a tall, soft-spoken man with a firm handshake, is clear about his Christian faith and what it says about homosexuality: It is a sin that cannot be tolerated.

His son agreed. He would forgo the century-old BSA for Trail Life, which officially launched just last month.

"It felt like I'd be hitting something higher than Eagle in terms of achievement," Andrew said, in an interview.

So Orr and his son left BSA and set out with other families to build a new organization based on what they believe to be Christian values. Orr is a regional organizer who speaks to churches and groups about Trail Life. His son now aspires to achieve a Freedom Award, the new group's highest rank.

The Orrs and others in Trail Life say they are fighting for the traditional values of Christianity and of Scouting, which includes a command in the Scout Oath to be "morally straight" — even as a changing America grows more accepting of gays and gay marriage. They are leaving an organization central to many of their upbringings with heavy hearts, but also with the belief that the Scouting they knew no longer exists.

"As Christians from a scriptural basis, we love all folks, but the Scripture is very clear that being homosexual is a sin," Ron Orr said in an interview. "We've got to be able to hold a strong line and set a consistent example for our young men."

Getting started

Trail Life has established units in more than 40 states, mostly from Boy Scouts and parents who feel their old organization has lost its way. It has about 600 units up and running or in the process of registration, executive director Rob Green said. As many as half of those who have expressed interest were not affiliated with the Boy Scouts beforehand, Green said.

It is still a tiny movement compared to Scouting, which has nearly 2.5 million youth members and remains a powerful force in American life, even with a 6 percent drop in membership last year.

Trail Life promotes itself on its website as the "premier national character development organization for young men which produces Godly and responsible husbands, fathers and citizens."

Its official membership standards policy welcomes all boys, but adds, "We grant membership to adults and youth who do not engage in or promote sexual immorality of any kind, or engage in behavior that would become a distraction to the mission of the program."

For over a century, Scouting banned openly gay youth and leaders, fighting all the way to the Supreme Court to defend its right to do so. Leaders who were revealed to be gay were excluded, and some boys were denied Eagle Scout awards by regional councils that were notified of their sexual orientation.

But the Scouts eventually began to face pressure from sponsors and CEOs who serve in Scouting leadership but lead companies with anti-discrimination policies. BSA surveys also showed that youths and parents of Scouting-age children were supportive of allowing openly gay Scouts.

Scouting leadership proposed a compromise: Accept openly gay youth, but exclude gay adult volunteers. BSA's National Council voted in May to enact it.

There are signs that the change worked. One of the gay Scouts who rallied for the change, Pascal Tessier of Maryland, has since received his long-delayed Eagle award. And threats of massive departures from Scouting ranks have not materialized. Early reports suggest a small percentage of Scouts left BSA due to the policy — far less than even what Scouting leaders were led to expect by surveys conducted before the vote.

"Ultimately, Scouting voted in favor of a new policy that allows us to serve more kids," said Deron Smith, BSA's national spokesman, in an email. "That said, we're pleased that the strong majority of our Scouting family remains committed to Scouting."

But the vote also angered many people affiliated with Scouting, particularly in more conservative parts of the country. Many of them have stayed with Scouting so far. Others have sought alternatives, from Trail Life to other youth groups sponsored by churches.

"We're trying to learn from the mistakes of the Boy Scouts," said John Stemberger, an Orlando, Fla., lawyer who led the opposition to BSA's May vote and went on to found Trail Life.

Stemberger accused BSA of imposing "an artificial political and social agenda" on its national membership at the expense of its rank-and-file members and churches. He says he's heard from people still in Scouting who are quietly dissatisfied, but staying put for now.

"They have now allowed open and avowed presentation in your face: here and queer, that kind of blunt thing," he said in an interview late last year. "And we don't think that's appropriate. We will allow boys of same-sex attraction in the program. We're not going to allow them to facilitate and promote that."